


Photo Album

by pennysparrow



Series: Batfam Week 2017 [1]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-12
Updated: 2017-06-12
Packaged: 2018-11-13 01:55:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11174598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pennysparrow/pseuds/pennysparrow
Summary: Bruce reminisces on a happy afternoon when a granddaughter stumbles upon the family photo albums.





	Photo Album

**Author's Note:**

> A part of Batfam Week on Tumblr. Day 1 was Family! Please check out the original post because it includes art by the amazing @sam-and-crystal! https://thelittleredheadedmusician.tumblr.com/post/161723835755/photo-album

The little girl roamed the manor in awe, her expression showcasing the pure definition of wonderstruck just as it always did when she came to visit “Grandpa Bruce”. She came across a section of the library that she couldn’t remember visiting before. The shelves here held books that were thicker, their spines almost resembling the three-ring binders she used in school. Ever so carefully the girl removed the books and placed them in a growing stack at her feet.

Bruce found her seated there on the floor, miniature towers surrounding her, an hour later. She was smiling as she cautiously turned the page of the volume she had nestled in her lap. Bruce maneuvered between the piles and carefully sat himself next to her. All the while his joints creaked and ached, his body’s belated revenge for years spent brutalized in the name of crime fighting. Peering over her shoulder Bruce felt the corners of his lips flick upward. “I see you’ve found the family albums,” he whispered.

“Is that what these are?” she asked with her wide eyes sparkling.

Bruce bobbed his head once and gently tugged the album from her lap to his own. Flipping the page, he smiled as something in his chest warmed. Staring up at him was his family in all their rambunctious, candid glee.

Tim sat directly in the middle of the frame, wedged on the couch between Steph and Cass. The two girls were successfully tickling Tim and you could just make out the hint of a motion blur around the edges of their forms as they squirmed and laughed. Damian sat on the arm of the couch with his back leaning against Stephanie. His arms were crossed as he petulantly stuck his tongue out at Dick, for once looking like the child he had truly been. For his part, Dick was sticking his own tongue out at Damian. Face scrunched up, hands on his hips, his butt jutting out as he leaned forward. The stance reminded Bruce suddenly of Peter Pan. Jason stood behind the couch with his arm slung around Duke’s shoulders. His head was thrown back in a laugh so you could just make out his shut eyes and open mouth between the jutting chin and flop of hair. Duke was smirking at whatever joke the two had made, likely at Dick’s expense, with his arms crossed over his chest. On Jason’s other side stood Babs, her palm pressed into his shoulder mid-shove. Her lips had scrunched up to the side of her face, wrinkling her nose in the process. However, behind her glasses her eyes sparkled with silent laughter. Behind Barbara and just barely in frame stood Alfred, a wide smile on his face as he watched the chaos his charges created.

“I took this picture,” he told her, tapping lightly on the page.

“How?” she asked. The knit of her brow told Bruce that she had sat through enough family dinners to know how hard it was to get them all joking with each other, even after so many years.

“Luck,” he said with a smirk.

The day the picture was taken was one of Gotham’s many dreary ones. His various children had found refuge from the drizzle and damp in various wings of the manor. Even now he couldn’t think of what might have drove them all there on a perfectly average Saturday besides the weather. The day before he had promised Tim to help with some WE things but had gotten significantly sidetracked, ending up in the living room arguing with his cousin over the phone when the teen walked in.

“Kate, I don’t think you understand exactly how redundant that is,” he half sighed into the phone. Pinching the bridge of his nose to try and ward off a Kate induced headache.

“And I don’t think you understand exactly how redundant you are! Come talk to me when you stop being an exorbitantly wealthy, cishet white male of a nonspecific faith,” she screeched back.

Bruce loved his cousin, she was often right, he just didn’t appreciate her ire being targeted at him. He turned to Tim sitting on the couch, who gave a little wave and mouthed “I’ll wait” with a smile. Bruce could tell he had heard Kate’s outburst and was now significantly more eager to hear his response than talk business.

“You need to understand that you have every reason to be mad and what you said is true, however directing your anger at me for those reasons isn’t helping right now since they are not only unrelated but also as I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Yet,” she immediately shot back.

Bruce sighed. “Yet. Now please, can we get back on topic?” He paced as she laid out the full extent of her anger. Now and again Bruce would interject with a question that she would then elaborate on but otherwise he just listened. His concentration narrowed to the problem she was dictating to him and when they both hung up about twenty minutes later, on good terms, he was surprised to find the living room filled.

Over the course of the conversation his other children must have filtered in. They now sat before him, talking and laughing. Tim was wildly turning his phone this way and that, obviously playing a racing game of some sort. Steph cheered and poked him in the side, causing Tim to flinch and jerk his phone.

“Steph!” he whined, “I was winning!”

“Just a game,” Cass poked him in the other side. She wore a sly grin and her eyes had a mischievous glint to them. Bruce had to admit he was glad that her mischief wasn’t being directed at him.

Stephanie snickered and the two girls shared a knowing look before they pounced. Tim didn’t stand a chance as his phone dropped to the floor.

Damian had perched on the arm of the couch, half leaning on Stephanie once she sat back slightly. Dick stood in front of him, waggling a finger in Damian’s face. “Just because you deny it doesn’t mean it’s not true!” he crowed.

“-tt- Only a true idiot such as yourself would believe in such an outrageous thing.” Damian rolled his eyes spectacularly.

“Oh really? Then why do your ears turn red whenever I say anything about it?” Dick asked.

Damian narrowed his eyes and Bruce could see him formulating a response.

Bruce decided to turn his attention away from his eldest and youngest son, full-well knowing that he would be made aware of the fallout of their current conversation as it happened. His eyes landed on Jason who was leaning with his forearms on the back of the couch. He was semi-aggressively ruffling Tim’s hair as the girls continued their tickling.

Duke was tapping on Jason’s shoulder, obviously trying to direct Jason’s attention to Dick and Damian’s increasingly dramatic not-actually-a-fight-fight. Babs was attempting to braid a few stray pieces of Cass’s short hair as she moved. Jason’s sudden focus on a brother that wasn’t Tim drew Barbara’s attention as well.

Bruce heard Jay snort as he quickly opened the camera app on his phone. He raised it as he heard Jason mutter something, snapping the picture just as his son let out a raucous laugh. Bruce lowered his phone without looking at the screen, instead standing there and smiling at his kids.

“B? Uh, everything ok?” Tim asked. Stephanie and Cass had dropped their hands to their laps. All of them had their own unique dumbstruck faces. Bruce blinked at them.

Alfred cleared his throat and stepped away from the back wall where he had been standing. “I believe Master Bruce is, ah, taking it all in.” He smiled kindly at Bruce before turning his attention to the kids.

He could see them all squirm a little, a few smiles and chuckles. Bruce was used to it though, he wasn’t one to openly show affection and no one was exactly comfortable acknowledging when he did. At least not when he was standing right there.

“I know I promised that we would talk business Tim, but I can’t pass up on a day such as this.” With that he swooped towards the couch, scooping up Cass and easily and gently throwing his daughter over his shoulder. She squealed and lightly pounded her fists on his back.

Bruce chuckled as she laughed, he was waiting for the rest of his family to lay chase.

“Hey! That’s my protegee!” Babs yelled as she ran after them.

“And my best friend! Kidnapping is a crime!” Steph called out.

Bruce glanced back in time to see Jason’s long strides overtaking the two girls. “Yeah well that’s my little sister so I get first dibs on ass whooping!”

Bruce laid on the speed as Cass’s peals of laughter filled the manor. Bruce could just hear Dick’s shout of “Get in line Jay!”

Rounding a corner, he was forced to skid to a stop, resulting in a soft “oof” from Cass. He murmured a quick apology and felt her sign “It’s alright” into his back. Bruce turned his attention back to the obstacle that caused him to stop. Before him stood Tim, Damian, and Duke. All three wore matching mischief making grins and Bruce had some sudden serious concern as to when they had all started spending enough time together to do that. The last Bruce could recall Damian and Tim still hated each other and Duke was still not quite comfortable around the other two.

“Now boys, let’s discuss this civilly,” he tried. Cass tapped his right shoulder and Bruce began edging that way. He could hear the others getting closer. They all stood there tensed, waiting to see who would make the first move.

“Now!” Cass yelled and Bruce took off running again. A smile on his face as he sprinted down the halls. “Kitchen!” Bruce veered left and slid to a stop in front of Alfred, who already had two bowls of ice cream readied. Setting Cass on her feet, Bruce turned to look at his daughter questioningly. She just held her phone up at him and smirked. Bruce gave Cass a high five as they grabbed the ice cream and went to barricade themselves in the cave.

After about ten minutes, and hastily finishing their ice cream, the two of them were dragged from the cave into the large movie room that the manor was home to. Dick had pulled a movie from the shelf and flipped on the DVD player. “What’d you pick?” Barbara asked.

“Man from U.N.C.L.E. Something we can all actually agreed on,” Dick said. His gaze met Bruce’s and he smiled as his eyes twinkled. Bruce flicked up his lips in a smile of his own. His eldest knew how to keep the peace, even if it didn’t last long.

The rest of the night passed relatively without incident. Tim lost his popcorn when Damian aggressively fist pumped, upending the bowl. Steph was told to shut up after the third time she said how much she loved a particular dress. Jason was shushed for bemoaning that his action sequences couldn’t be viewed from such good angles. In all, it had been a good day. A real win for the Wayne family and company.

“Hello? Anyone in here? Alfred said you were here and I will not take kindly to being startled,” Dick’s voice carried through the library. He rounded the corner of the shelves and smiled down at them. “There you are munchkin! Hey B! I’m surprised to see you on the floor. You think you can get up?”

Bruce scoffed. “I’m not that old Dick. I’m guessing you were sent to collect us?” Dick gave a sharp nod and a grin. Bruce handed the photo album back and slowly pushed himself to his feet.

He began following after Dick when he paused and looked back. The photo albums were still stacked around her and she hadn’t even made a move to get up. “You coming sport?”

Her head jerked up. “Huh? Oh. Sorry. These are just so cool.” A small smile danced across her lips as she kept staring at the page.

“You know, why don’t we bring some of these along? I think everyone else might like looking at them too.”

Her face lit up. “Really?” When Bruce nodded she scrambled to her feet and scooped up as many albums as she could. Bruce helped her and between the two of them they managed about half of the piles.


End file.
